PID can occur after a miscarriage, abortion, or any other procedure that opens the cervix or abdomen, allowing disease-causing germs easy entry to the reproductive organs. PID can spread beyond the reproductive tract, causing serious and potentially deadly complications.
Even aside from the immediate dangers, the long-term effects of PID can be devastating. PID can permanently scar and damage the fallopian tubes, causing blockage of the tubes.
PID also increases the risk of an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg gets trapped in the tube and begins to grow there.
Without treatment, the tube may burst, causing internal bleeding and possibly death. Finally, tissue damage can leave many women with chronic pelvic pain long after the PID infection is gone. Even if you have only one sexual partner, you can still get PID if your partner is having intercourse with other people. A woman who has only one partner who is also sexually exclusive has a very low risk of PID. Using an intrauterine device IUD for birth control increases the risk of PID somewhat, especially for the first few months after the device is inserted.
Douching has also been linked to PID, perhaps because it pushes vaginal organisms up through the cervical opening. Once you've had one bout of PID, you're more likely to have another, regardless of your behavior. These later infections are not always caused by a new STD. Instead, they commonly result from bacteria that were not completely wiped out by earlier therapy. PID also seems to leave the reproductive tract more sensitive to vaginal organisms that wouldn't ordinarily cause a problem.
The symptoms of PID can be dramatic or they can be barely noticeable. Symptoms caused by chlamydia are especially likely to be mild. One in 5 women with PID become infertile. The more often a woman has PID and the more severe her case is, the greater her risk of infertility. PID can cause scarring of the tissue inside the fallopian tubes.
This scarring can damage and block the tubes causing infertility. The scarring also may prevent a fertilized egg from moving normally into the uterus, which can result in an ectopic pregnancy.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg attaches outside of the uterus, often to a damaged fallopian tube.
The egg may begin to grow in the tube instead of moving into the uterus. This can lead to rupture of the tube and bleeding into the abdomen.
Emergency surgery may be needed for this serious problem. Who Is at Risk? PID is most common among young women, but can occur at any age in women who are sexually active. Those who are at increased risk of getting PID are:. PID may cause severe or minor symptoms. Some women with PID have no symptoms at all. However, having 1 of these symptoms does not mean that you have PID. It could be a sign of another problem. PID can be hard to diagnose. One reason is that the affected organs are not easy to examine.
Another reason is that PID symptoms may be like those of other problems, such as appendicitis or ectopic pregnancy. Your doctor will ask you about your medical history, including sexual habits, birth control, and symptoms.
Your doctor also may do a pelvic exam to find out if your reproductive organs are tender. Samples of cells from your cervix may be taken to look for gonorrhea and chlamydial infection. Blood tests also may be done. PID can be treated and often cured. Early treatment of PID is vital to prevent problems such as infertility.
However, even when the infection is treated, long-term problems can persist. PID is first treated with antibiotics. In most cases, antibiotics alone can get rid of the infection. If a fertilised egg gets stuck and begins to grow inside the tube, it can cause the tube to burst, which can sometimes lead to severe and life-threatening internal bleeding. If you're diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, you may be given medication to stop the egg growing or have surgery to remove it.
As well as increasing your risk of having an ectopic pregnancy, scarring or abscesses in the fallopian tubes can make it difficult for you to get pregnant if eggs can't pass easily into the womb. It's estimated about 1 in 10 women with PID become infertile as a result of the condition, with the highest risk for women who delayed treatment or had repeated episodes of PID.
But a long-term study in the US showed that women who'd been successfully treated for PID had the same pregnancy rates as the rest of the population. If this isn't possible and you want to have children, you may want to consider an assisted conception technique, such as IVF.
IVF involves surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory, before planting the fertilised eggs into the woman's womb.
This technique can help you get pregnant if you can't have children naturally. But the success rate is often low, depending on your age and other factors.
Page last reviewed: 06 August Next review due: 06 August But most women with PID who complete their course of antibiotics have no long-term problems.
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